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Apr 14, 2016

The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement of the
projected building of a high speed rail network up the East coast including
regional centres will come as welcome relief to many traditionalists.It is believed that it will probably
replace the Eastern Suburbs Railway Line in Australian mythology.

For those not familiar with the ESRL, it was a line
that was initially proposed in the late 1800s, planned in 1926, started, stopped,
and promised at every election thereafter. As such it became a part of our folklore until 1979 when it
was completed by the Wran government, creating many idioms on the
way.Unemployment, for example was
referred to as “working on the Eastern Suburbs line.”

Recognising the hole left in the Australian psyche by the
lack of a never-never election promise, the Hawke government showed interest in
the idea of high-speed rail as a politically viable though uneconomic alternative in the
early 80s. Most governments
seeking re-election since then have backed the idea, which raises the
possibility that in another thirty years or so, it could become an iconic
promise.

At this point it will have to be either acted on or dropped,
owing in this day and age to the risk of it becoming a heritage listed promise
which would prevent any further action on it.
In the meantime though it will offer generous employment prospects for planners, researchers, study groups, lawyers, and think tanks, keeping them on the gravy train for the foreseeable future.

The lack of any implied commitment to HSR by the
Turnbull government, raised concerns among some commentators that the government
would rely on the newer, tried and tested pledge to adopt fiscal restraint,
balance the budget and pay off the deficit.Economic restraint in the Liberal Party is showing signs of remaining a pipe dream for 50 – 100 years, with an accelerating rate of postponement already apparent.

You must however respect the PMs desire to stick with
tradition and offer the vision of sleepers and rails heading off into the
sunset.

We need to be grateful that Hawkie came up with high speed rail rather than our own death star, an idea which is just so 80s. Death stars, while offering the sort of kudos derived from commitments to spend a billion trillion gazillion dollars, tend to be more impractical than high speed rail. Sooner or later, everyone wants one and they lose their effectiveness when other nations realise that you wouldn't be stupid enough to blow yourself up in order to get your own way.

This would probably happen sometime after the current crop of politicians leave office.

(UPDATE) The government has denied that this is how the idea got started:

I'm aware of it Tim, its just that it never seemed to get the same traction in the Australian mindset attained by the ESRL. This may be because it was out of the way in low population states and wasn't likely to pull anywhere near the votes.